for those of you who have asked about the bear

He is here and luckily was in one of the bags that made it with us to the airport. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about. This teddy bear has traveled around with us for almost 10 years now and we take his photo in front of landmarks or other things that represent a place. I then compile the photos into a scrapbook and my preschool class can see places they might not know about. For instance if we talk about a mountain, they can see what a mountain looks like. The bear is somewhere in every photo so it is kind of like a where's Waldo book too.

He was originally from the Hard Rock Cafe in Niagra Falls and has been as far away as Paris, London, China and Australia as well as all over the US. In Amsterdam he was able to meet Van Gogh bear at the Hard Rock Amsterdam

Our last day here

Our last bag has made it's appearance so for this moment we have everything we left with- I hope I can say the same thing this time tomorrow.

Today we started at the Van Gogh museum. One nice thing about seeing art museums with young children is how fast you can see everything and still feel like you got your money's worth. We were disappointed thought that "Starry Night" is not on display here, but in New York. A. did a report on Van Gogh for school so it was "boring cause I already know all this stuff"

Then we took the kids to this underground playground. It is an old converted walkway (the kind which allow pedestrians to cross under busy intersections) There were 5 or 6 of the those maze climbers (you know the like the habitrails for kids that they have at Chuck E Cheeses) They were rated by age, though to keep the biggest kids separate from the smaller ones. There were lots of chairs for the adults and they even provided books and magazines for us to read. Now maybe this is a cultural thing and the children here are better behaved than at home but based on what I saw it is a universal truth that if you put a group of children together in a large space designed for movement and you don't have any adult supervision the end result is Lord of the Flies just without the pig. Poor D. was walking past a child when he pushed her for no apparent reason. She just shook it off (but if you know her then you know the risk that kid took). He was only 2 or 3 himself, but his grownup was no where to be found. After about an hour or so, we had had enough and came back to the hotel for a brief nap (unfortunately, no one actually napped)

We ended our trip here with a canal tour that had a pizza and ice cream dinner. We actually docked so that Domino's could deliver the pizza to the boat. The meal didn't arrive though until about 8pm so the kids were a little crabby until then, but after stuffing themselves everyone was much better behaved.

We are now back, trying to re-pack everything but I thought I'd post one last time before our internet times out. Wish us luck and safe and healthy travels out next post should be from Ethiopia (although I may not be able to post until Friday night Ethiopia time)

About photos....

Because we are going through an email posting system and because my camera is taking photos at a high resolution and because the computer we are using doesn't have my photo managing software (so I can't compress the files) and because my email system has a limit on file size for attachments we may not be able to post as many photos as we did for China (also it takes about 4 minutes a photo to upload and that is using a wi-fi connection- I am dreading dial up) We will try to get as many up as possible, but wanted to give everyone who only wants to see photos a heads up....

Windmills and Walking

Our day started out with the delivery of another bag- which my hair and skin are grateful for. Still no word on the bag with the car seat and the Baby Bjorn in it. We went out to tour windmills today. A brief train ride out of the city brings you to an area with several old style windmills- you know the kind from the photos. We also passed several wind turbines on the way to see them. So the kids were excited to see both the new and the old ones. We were able to climb up into one but had to climb back down when D. decided that she didn't want to have to hold our hands. The railing around the platform was pretty open and she is pretty small so we decided better safe than sorry. She did not however agree and voiced that disagreement loudly and insistently. So we came back down.

The kids all seemed to enjoy the area- there were farm animals which D. loved and plenty of things to take photos of which the boys loved. X. had a disposable camera which he used up within the first 8 hours of our arrival in Amsterdam so he has been using my small digital camera. Hopefully it will survive his "photography". We went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner which the kids enjoyed until I wouldn't let them each get $35 teddy bears in the gift shop. They did get over it when we stopped for ice cream though.

I thought that we walked a lot in China, but I think Amsterdam might be even more walking. A. has been holding up (and keeping up with us) like a champ- the little kids are getting to ride in the stroller so it is not nearly as challenging for them. My shoes (which I wear all the time) are given me a blister which makes me think me I don't walk nearly as much in normal life as I think I do. That would explain some things though….

We got back to hotel and a helpful KLM employee got on the phone and found the missing bag on the ground in Detroit. Apparently they have been looking for the bag using the wrong description. There is no "car seat bag" on their chart so they entered it in as a "duffle bag/back pack" (despite the fact I said it was "blob shaped with wheels") and reported it as "blue/turquoise" despite the fact I said it was a blue/gray color") The bag is supposed to be on the last flight out tonight (but probably on the first flight on Wednesday) so we are likely going to go to the airport on Thursday, pick it up and turn around a check it back in for the trip to Ethiopia. We hope it (and the other 4) make it to Ethiopia.

At least we have some clothes!!

Today got off to a slow start today as the kids all wanted to sleep in- and to be honest- so did I. However, our late start meant that one of the lost bags made it to us before we left for the day. The good news is that it contained some of our clothes- the bad news was no makeup!! The other suitcase has returned from it's jaunt and will be delivered in the morning which just leaves our duffle bag missing. Not that any of the bags had nothing important in them but the duffle bag has a couple of critical things in them- the snacks, the Baby Bjorn carrier (that we will certainly need to get through the airport) and the car seat (which I paid a lot of money for a ticket for the baby so I can use the car seat on the plane) We will see what the airline does to fix this…. Hopefully it can be found but I am losing my optimistic attitude about it. And I just heard for a family who just returned from Ethiopia who said lots of the bags were lost at least for a while. I am not looking forward to dealing with this again. Hopefully, since we don't have a connection our bags will all make it there.

Today we spent the day at the science center NEMO. The kids had a lot of fun running through all the exhibits, even though they have a science center at home, for some reason Bernoulli's exhibit is more fun at other science centers. They also had a replica of a 1700 ship docked outside the museum. The kids also liked pretending to be pirates and running around. D's favorite part was this recording of a dog in one of the mock up scenes on the ship. She tried and tried to find the real dog and just couldn't quite figure it out. The kids are less crabby today after a good nights sleep. It's been better adjusting to the time change here when we can do what we want when we want. Hopefully it will help them to be pleasant later this week in Ethiopia.

That's about all from here. The kids are loving the French fries that they serve everywhere and tomorrow we are hoping to find a good pancake place for lunch. Pancakes are very popular as well.

We made it to Amsterdam (mostly)

We have made it to Amsterdam. However, to continue the “how much stress will it take to get my head to explode” theme of this trip, there is an issue. I know that it is not unusual to have baggage be misplaced (especially in Ethiopia) so I made sure to split everything between the suitcases just in case one went on an unscheduled trip of it’s own. We checked 5 bags when we left. When we got off the plane in Amsterdam, not one, not two, but THREE of our bags are missing. That is bad enough but the bags we do have have very little we really need in them- one is full of donations for the orphanage and the other has the odds and ends, like jackets, extra diapers, pretty insignificant stuff. What are missing are the bags that have ALL our clothes, including for the baby, the baby wipes, the formula, our toiletries(including makeup and hair conditioner!!!), the car seat, the snacks- so the kids are all in bed in their underwear and we aren’t exactly sure what will be happening tomorrow. They all had an outfit in their carryons (tip for future travelers) in case of spills (or as X reminded us repeatedly on the plane ride, if he “frows up” like he did on the way to China) but the outfits are shorts and T shirts and it is kind of cool here. B just got off the phone with the airline and bag is there now, one is on route and one is still off on it’s own. (Pray it’s the one with the conditioner that they have now)

That said, the weather here is beautiful but a little chilly and the jet lag is killing us. We took the kids to the zoo today and were able to keep them up until about 9 pm so hopefully we will wake tomorrow on local time (which is only an hour or two off from Ethiopia time-so that should make that adjustment easier)

a couple of administrative notes

A couple of things-
Feel free to leave comments (we love them!!!) but your comments will not appear right away. I have the comments set to be moderated (just in case) and because we can’t directly access the blog, I may not be able to get them posted until we return home. We will see them via email though so please don’t be shy.

Also, as I think we are the first family from my agency to try to blog during the trip, there may be more “technical” information for those who are traveling after us than there was for D's adoption So if you aren’t planning a trip to Ethiopia to adopt a baby, please bear with us.

Finally, here in Amsterdam internet access is EXPENSIVE so we may not be posting every day (or will post several posts at once) Hopefully, once we get to Ethiopia we can post everyday (assuming we can get internet access every day)